Mob Demands Top Iraqi Shiite Cleric Leave

Published 8:00 pm, Sunday, April 13, 2003

Associated Press Writer

The three top Shiite Muslim clerics threatened by a mob in Iraq's holy city of Najaf were safe Monday after intervention by tribal supporters, according to a cleric in Kuwait.

"Yesterday afternoon, members of the central Euphrates tribes who support the religious leaders of Najaf entered the city and liberated it from Muktada's group," Sayyed Mohammed Baqer al-Mehri told The Associated Press.

Muktada al-Sadr is the son of Ayatollah Mohammed al-Sadr, who was murdered by the Iraqi government in 1999.

He said there was no fighting and that tribesmen's presence in the city designed as a show of support for the religious leaders.

Al-Mehri, who heads the Congregation of Muslim Shiah Olama in Kuwait, had said Sunday the group feared for the lives of Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ali al-Sistani, Ayatollah Mohammed Saeed al-Hakim and Ayatollah Mohammed Ishaq Fayyed. The cleric urged America and Britain to protect them.

He had claimed that "mobs and a number of Baathist agents" who said they were led by Muktada al-Sadr demonstrated outside al-Sistani's Najaf home on Saturday and demanded both he and Fayyad leave Iraq within 48 hours.

"Now, we don't feel the danger (to their lives) we felt yesterday," al-Mehri said, adding that all three top clerics were in an undisclosed "safe place" in Najaf. Muktada was not in the holy city, but has not been killed as some media reported, he said.

In a statement issued on his official Web site, al-Sistani said that the "lives of the great religious authorities in Najaf are threatened." The statement did not elaborate on the danger but said U.S.-led coalition forces "bear the responsibility" to prevent any threats.

Al-Sistani last week issued a fatwa, or religious order, instructing the population to remain calm and not interfere with coalition forces, who at the time were still facing Iraqi forces in Najaf.

A spokesman at U.S. Central Command in Qatar said Sunday the incident underscored the volatility in Najaf, a Shiite holy city.

"That's the citizenry and if that's the case, they have to take responsibility for themselves to a greater extent," Lt. Cmdr. Charles Owens said of the reports. "It just shows that there's a lot of work left to do in re-establishing law and order."

The incident pointed to fissures among Shiite factions in Najaf and demonstrated the difficulties that the new U.S.-led interim administration in Iraq could face.

On Thursday, a mob in Najaf hacked to death a Shiite cleric who had recently returned from exile and called for reconciliation. Abdul Majid al-Khoei was killed when a meeting called to reconcile between rival groups in Najaf turned into a melee at the Shrine of Ali, one of Shiite Islam's holiest sites.

The cause of the clash was still unclear. But some witnesses said followers of al-Sadr were enraged over the presence of another cleric widely hated for his loyalty to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The al-Sadr family has a long-standing rivalry for influence with the al-Khoei clan.